Monday, February 21, 2011

There's a classic scene in every five seconds in this film. The scene in the minute 12:00-12:25 reminds me of Thailand.

I wish to screen this film together with such crazy films as AT THE HEART OF A SPARROW (2006, Barry Doupé, animation), LOOK OF LOVE (2006, Yoshiharu Ueoka), WHAT HAPPENED TO MAGDALENA JUNG? (1983, Christoph Schlingensief), THE FAMILY THAT EATS SOIL (2005, Khavn de la Cruz), and THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974, Luis Buñuel).

The left screen shows three persons standing on a rocky beach, the middle screen shows a close-up shot of grass blowing in the wind and a sign telling the name of the place, while the right screen shows a long shot of an upcountry road under the blue sky. After a while, the middle screen turns black and then starts showing the film credits and texts about a woman who wakes up in the morning, trying to forget something. The right screen turns black later. We also hear a voiceover of a woman saying something which I don't understand, but her voice turns into a small laughter at the end of the film.

1.It is really like a postcard from a tourist place. While a postcard can show a still image of a beautiful beach and some texts, this film can show moving images of a beach, images of grasses and leaves blowing in the wind, texts, and voices.

2.The characteristics of the voice. I like the small laughter at the end of the film very much. It makes me feel good. It also reminds me that I also like the screaming female voice in CHAY, GAYVAH-RAR 'N' THE MACHUPICCHU (2009, A++++++++++) very much.

3. The unintelligibility of the voice. We hear the voice of a woman, but it is suppressed by the voice of the wind. It reminds me of the voice and sound in NEWS FROM HOME (Chantal Akerman, A+), and its unintelligibility reminds me of the unintelligibility of the texts in PERU TIME (2008, Chaloemkiat Saeyong, 18 min, A++++++++++).

4.The conflicts of the title. The Thai title of this film is VACATION IN SINGAPORE, JAVA, BALI, 11 OCT-31 JULY, 2199 A.D., but the film is like a documentary or a home video shot in Srichang Island in Thailand. The English title of this film is AFTERNOON LANDSCAPE, but the story in the texts happens at dawn.

1.EZRA (2007, Newton I. Aduaka)It is inspired by the civil war in Sierra Leone, told through the conflicted testimonies of three witnesses.

2.PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (1996, Srdjan Dragojevic, Serbia)"At the Belgrade army hospital, casualties of Bosnian civil war are treated. In the hospital they remember their youth and the war. Two young boys, Halil, a Muslim, and Milan, a Serb, have grown up together near a deserted tunnel linking the Yugoslav cities of Belgrade and Zagreb. They never dare go inside, as they believe an ogre resides there. Twelve years later, during the Bosnian civil war, Milan, who is trapped in the tunnel with his troop, and Halil, find themselves on opposing sides, fatefully heading toward confrontation"

3.THE RED AND THE WHITE (1968, Miklós Jancsó, Hungary)"In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side then the other. Captives are executed or sent running naked into the woods. Neither side has a plan, and characters the camera picks out soon die. A White Cossack officer kills a Hungarian and is executed by his own superiors when he tries to rape a milkmaid. At the hospital, White officers order nurses into the woods, dressed in finery, to waltz. A nurse aids the Reds, then they accuse her of treason for following White orders. Red soldiers walk willingly, singing, into an overwhelming force. War seems chaotic and arbitrary."

4.RED DAWN (1991, Jorge Fons, Mexico)"October 2, 1968 in Mexico City. There's only ten days for the Olympic Games and a small student's revolt has turned into a major political turmoil. A meeting will be carry out that day in Tlatelolco (the largest housing complex in the city) and the situation is extremely tense. A typical middle-class mexican family (living in Tlatelolco) will be tragically involved in the events, when the meeting is brutally interrupted by the army and hundreds of people are killed in the square in front of their apartment building"

5.TESTAMENT (1988, John Akomfrah, UK, 88 min)This experimental film is about Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president who was forced into exile by the military coup d'état of 1966. Reading about this film somehow reminds me of Pridi.

Akomfrah said about TESTAMENT: "We went to Ghana to try to make a film about Kwameh Nkrumah, but also about a movement and a body of ideas that simply don't exist anymore. They'd been swept away not just by the force of historical events but also by the attempts on the part of the successive governments after Nkrumah's to basically bury the man and all he stood for. There is something metaphorically significant in that act because so much of diasporic history rests precisely in that gap between history and myth."

I like the lyrics of this song very much. I think it is very surreal. It is about a woman who cook Thai food for her own birthday party, and uses strange food ingredients such as a black cat, an elephant, a langur, toads, house lizards, bombs, bullets, a crowbar, a rod, and a chopping knife. The song is like the mix between BABETTE'S FEAST (1987, Gabriel Axel) and THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER (1989, Peter Greenaway).

Saturday, February 19, 2011

It's great to hear a good song from Deconstruction Records again. I used to love this record label very much about 15 years ago, when it released such classic songs as ONE & ONE (Robert Miles featuring Maria Nayler), DON'T YOU WANT ME (Felix), SIGHT FOR SORE EYES (M People), and CONFIDE IN ME (Kylie Minogue).http://www.deconstructionrecords.co.uk/releases/

Friday, February 18, 2011

In a scene in PANYA RENU (2011, Bhin Banluerit, A+++++), there's a leech coming out of the penis of a character. I had never known that this thing could happen in real life, so I googled about it and found that this thing really happened in Thailand. Very scary.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

I guess many Thai songs are about dirty jokes, such as the song SNAKE HEAD by Chutima Naiyana. On the surface, the song is about an insincere guy. But the "snake" in the lyrics of the song has double meaning. It can mean both the insincere guy and the penis.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpoeLWBn9nk

An excerpt from the lyrics of SNAKE HEAD:"Snake or pig, I must see it.I'm gonna measure it. I want to see how long your fang is.I'm gonna be bad, if I can't control myself.I'm gonna give you my heart one day.I'm gonna be a slut."

Another song that I like very much is SAO SEE by Janet Khiew. The song is about a woman who "sells combs" in Pattaya. But the word "comb" in Thai is pronounced "we", which is like "he", which means vagina in Thai. So I guess the song is really about a prostitute in Pattaya.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A NOTEBOOK ABOUT CATS is a Thai book written by Tossapol Boonsinsukh, one of my most favorite filmmakers of all time. This book contains many short stories. His short stories are super-surreal, lovely, sad, and lonely, like his films.

One of my most favorite stories in the book is called THE PHOTOCOPYING MACHINE. Here is an excerpt from the book:

"In the office there is a woman who likes to talk to the photocopying machine,especially after everybody has left.Once I left the office late.I saw her talking to the photocopying machine with pleasure.She likes to hug her knees, resting her head to the machine, and telling many things to the photocopying machine.

And I sat there listening to her.The office was quiet. Only a few lights were still on.I fell asleep. She found me and woke me up.That night both of us helped each other close the office doorand walked to the main street together."

Saturday, February 12, 2011

In the first scene of this film we see foreigners taking photos with a Thai palace guard. In the second scene we see a Thai woman taking photo with a wax figure of a footballer in red uniform. In the third scene we see some Thai women taking photo with a big rabbit doll wearing red shirt in front of Paragon department store.

What is the meaning of this film? I don't know. Are there any deep meanings hidden in it? I'm not sure. Is the third scene a staged scene or a real scene? I'm not sure. Anyway, I like this film very much as a lovely observation on some unimportant human behaviors.

I also learn from this film that foreigners also like to take photos of Thai palace guards. I have never known this before. I used to think that tourists only take photos of British palace guards. If I remember it correctly, two films about female teenagers have a scene of girls making fun of British palace guards. These two films are WINNING LONDON (2001, Craig Shapiro) and DEAR GALILEO (2009, Nithiwat Tharathorn, A).

Sunday, February 06, 2011

I just found an issue of TV Reviews, a magazine I liked very much in the 1980's. Flipping through this issue from 1985, I realized that I have forgotten many stars, including Eddie Kwan (กวนลี่เจี๋ย), Moon Lee (หลี่ไช่ฟ่ง), Jamie Chik (ชิเหม่ยเจิน), Olivia Cheng (เจิ้นเหวินหย่า), Hiromi Go, Maiko Ito, Junko Mihara, Naoko Kawai, Kumiko Oba, and Scott Baio. It's funny to read Leslie Cheung's interview about his rumored relationship with Anita Mui. It's sad to realize both are dead.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

"All nationalism is based on the myths of its origins" – a quote from the Romanian film IN TRANSIT (2008, Joanne Richardson, A+++++), which is shown at Jamjuree Art Gallery until Feb 6.

What I like very much in this film is the story about the city CLUJ-NAPOCA. There seems to be the myths about Roman culture and Dacian culture in this city. And this city also became a cultural war zone between Romania and Hungary in the early 2000's.

From Wikipedia:"After the end of totalitarian rule, the nationalist politician Gheorghe Funar became mayor and governed for the next 12 years. His tenure was marked by strong Romanian nationalism and acts of ethnic provocation against the Hungarian-speaking minority. This deterred foreign investment;"

Friday, February 04, 2011

The first scene of this film shows three men wearing Che Guevara's t-shirts playing football or takraw together. The second scene shows a glimpse of sunrise or something like that from the window of an airplane. The third scene shows the painting LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE (1830) by Eugène Delacroix and ends with the light flickering on the top of a museum. I think the title of this film refers to the title of the painting.

I think this is one of the most optimistic films I have ever seen. It fits a pessimistic person like me. Liberty and Freedom. That's what I wish for. That's what I hope for. That's what I dream for. But after such cases as the banning of the film INSECTS IN THE BACKYARD (2010, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, A+++++), I doubt if I will ever have liberty and freedom in this hopeless country in this lifetime.